Blog:Jean genius

I was so intrigued by news that Tesco was selling jeans for the bargain basement sum of £4 that I went and bought a pair. And mighty fine they are too. OK they don’t have the styling or cachet of labels like Earl Jeans or Paper, Denim and Cloth, but at that price you don’t expect them to. And with weekly sales standing at around 30,000 pairs, a lot of shoppers seem to agree.

Tesco’s renewed focus on its clothing offer is creating a bit of a stir, and an article in The Daily Telegraph sheds some light on how it’s achieving its goals. Other retailers should sit up and take note of this statement from Richard Brasher, who heads the company’s non-food business: “Our fundamental philosophy is how little can we sell a product for, not how much can we sell it for. The principle is that we want to sell for less.”

Surviving in a declining market is the biggest challenge for discount/mass-market retailers and suppliers of commodity products such as basic T-shirts, hoodies or cotton men's shirts – which is why it...